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There’s a really unusual story still in the developing stage about a nursing student who went missing after trying to help a wandering toddler. The good news is that she’s alive and mostly unharmed. Everything else is sketchy and inconclusive.
Nursing student returns
Missing Alabama nursing student Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell was “dropped off” at her family home “late Saturday,” July 15. Alternative reports note she returned “on foot.” Either way, she didn’t have her key so had to knock on the door. As soon as she was inside, her family called the cops, who got her straight to the hospital. She’s still not saying much.
Some things have been trickling out from the family in bits and pieces. The toddler was likely used as bait and her boyfriend relates that she was literally fighting for her life during the 48 hours she was missing. More details are expected soon.
Police confirm that the car of the missing student was found abandoned on I-459 South. Only moments before, she had called 911 to report “seeing a toddler on the side of an interstate.” After calling the cops, she called her brother’s girlfriend and was still on the line when apparently abducted.
So after two days of fighting for her life, the kidnapper dropped #CarleeRussell back at her home? And police are going to give her some "time to recover" before getting valuable information needed to find this dangerous abductor? Where's the toddler?🧐https://t.co/WqED5VkuMB
— Notta Sheep ⚜ (@NottaSheep) July 16, 2023
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies called off their extensive search for Ms. Russell when she was reported as accounted for, “though some of the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain unclear.”
Various outlets are reporting that she lives in Hoover, Alabama with her family. She’s “a nursing student at Jefferson State Community College and works part-time at the Woodhouse Spa at the Summit mall in Birmingham.” She called 911 at 9:34 p.m. on July 13 while driving on I-459 South, reporting “a toddler wandering by the side of the interstate.”
She “stopped her car to check on the toddler and then called a family member to make the same report. The family member then ‘lost contact‘ with Russell, but ‘the line remained open,‘” police relate.
Belongings nearby
When police arrived, they found her car “and some of her belongings nearby,” but were unable to find the student or a child “in the area.” They also verify that “they had not received other calls about a toddler or reports of a missing child in the area.”
According to the victim’s mother, “my son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you OK?‘ She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream.” After that, “all you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
According to Hoover Police, they got a call “at 10:45 p.m. Saturday notifying them that Russell had returned to her family home. Medics and police went to the home, and emergency services took Russell to a hospital for evaluation.” All Chief Nick Derzis is saying about that is “Russell arrived home alone.” They aren’t saying where she was.
Please Share🙏🏻🤍 Official Timeline of Carlee Russell's disappearance up to when she returned home, according to Hoover PD. #CarleeRussell #CarleeRussellFound pic.twitter.com/8nsJTjoJCh
— Annie Elise x 10 to LIFE (@_10toLIFE) July 16, 2023
“Additional information will be provided when it becomes available.” Family of the missing student didn’t set up any sort of GoFundMe or anything but “an anonymous donor offered $20,000 for her ‘safe return.‘”
As of this writing, the most up to the minute reports note that “Thomar Latrell Simmons, Russell’s boyfriend, claims the good Samaritan was actually kidnapped and is currently recovering after having gone through the awful ordeal.” According to his facebook post, “She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours, so until she’s physically & mentally stable again, she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment.”
Previously, parent of the nursing student had posted, that “the child their daughter tried to help was actually used as ‘bait‘ to lure her out of her car and kidnap her.“
